CHARLOTTEIt felt as though everyone sucked in a breath at the same time. All eyes were now firmly fixed on Caeson and me. But even with the intensity of the crowd’s collective gaze, and Caeson’s intense stare locked on my every move, I didn’t falter. And I wouldn’t. The silence broke when Caeson suddenly reached into his pocket, pulled out his keys, and walked over to me. “No way!” a random blue-haired student said. “I didn’t think he would—” I caught another voice in the crowd. Whispers started, cheering erupted, and gasps of disbelief rose from the crowd. It was insane to think I was the cause of it. Caeson dropped the keys into my outstretched hand without so much as batting an eye. The moment the metal touched my skin, I let out a relieved breath I didn’t even know I was holding. He remained standing, watching me. I parted my lips to say something to him, but my words turned into a small squeal when Vance lifted me into a hug and spun me around,
CHARLOTTEEmbarrassed was a mild word to describe what I was feeling. I wanted to throw up, I wanted to run, I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry, but most of all, I wanted to wipe that self-satisfied smile off Taide Soloh’s face. People were staring, and unlike when that first dare had been passed on to me, it wasn’t an open and curious stare; their eyes were full of judgment, and the words that passed between them were laced with mockery and laughter. “She’s half human? Her dad’s human?” I heard someone say while giggling. I couldn’t tell who it was, and I didn’t want to know. If there was a way to get the ground to open up and swallow me whole, I’d do it without even thinking twice. “Who would have guessed? She was already so pathetic; this makes it even more so!” Someone was laughing, and I heard the sound of a camera shuttering, and the voices became louder. The pressure of their stares and the noise of their voices and laughter eventually made me snap. I let go of Van
CHARLOTTEFor a moment, I was in an alternate version of the world I lived in. In that world, my mother didn’t die, my father wasn’t abusive, I didn’t have to attend Lupin prep on a scholarship, and the triplets didn’t hate me. No.They didn’t exist.For that moment, I was in that world, and everything was fine…Then the slightest glimmers of sunlight fluttered through my eyelids, and I was wrenched back into reality in the cruelest of ways. I frowned a little and stretched in my seat, my back hurt from the position I’d been curled up in all night, but I felt a hell of a lot better than I did last night. I took stock of my surroundings, I was still in Vance’s car and dressed in the same clothes as I was last night, we were in an empty parking lot I couldn’t recognize, and judging from the slight glimmers of sunlight, it was still very early in the day. I turned towards the driver's seat and found Vance awake and watching me cautiously, like he was worried I’d break down crying ag
CHARLOTTEShocked as Vance was when I ran over and hugged him, I appreciated the fact that he just let me enjoy the moment, seemingly sinking into it himself. He didn’t pull away. He ran a gentle hand over my hair and hugged me tightly; it felt nice to be held so closely and so gently. It felt nice to be cared for, looked after.Everything about Vance was beyond nice, but there was no other word to describe it.“Thank you so much,” I said into his chest, his hand gently running up and down my back. “For today and just for everything in general.”“You don’t have to thank me,” and I could tell he meant that. But it still didn’t stop me from hugging him even tighter and burying my face in his neck.“I do,” I said. “This means a lot more to me than you’d ever know.”“You’re ready to leave?” he asked.“Definitely,” I replied. I felt a lot better than this morning too. After spending all that time with my sister, locked away in our little world, and with Vance’s kindness, all that crushing
CHARLOTTE“That can’t be what I think it is.”Vance’s voice was what snapped me out of my shocked haze. I quickly slipped away from him and returned to the passenger seat, adjusting my clothes as I went.My heart was in my throat and shame coloured my cheeks pink.How could I have forgotten?? I internally scolded myself. Though there was no point doing that now, Vance was frozen in his seat and his eyes were still fixed on the spot I was desperately trying to use my hair to conceal.I was almost always aware of its presence, ever since my mark healed properly, I learnt to use my hair, clothes and the makeup Madeline taught me to apply to keep my mark hidden. But the chaos of the past few hours had taken my mind off it and now, I was paying the price for my negligence.Vance lifted his hand slowly and reached for the spot where my mark was hidden, but I flinched away before he could. “Please don’t,” I whispered, avoiding his accusatory gaze.“Is it… real?” He sounded almost hopeful, lik
CHARLOTTEAfter a few attempts at getting me to talk, Madeline carefully bundled up my sobbing form and gently led me inside.Thankfully, we didn’t run into anyone as she took me up to her room. She lowered me onto the bed, shut the door and slowly tried to calm me down so she could understand what was going on, but at the moment, I couldn’t bring myself to calm down.With every tear she wiped off my face, a new wave followed it, my fingers shook, my breathing came out in pants and it was only Madeline’s grip around me that kept me from just slipping away to the floor in that minute.“Charlotte,” Madeline sounded heartbroken seeing me this way, she muttered something under her breath and gently smoothed my hair. “Charlotte, what happened? Did Vance say something? If he did I’ll-”“No,” I pulled away from her briefly so I could explain, my hands flew to my face and I tried to wipe my tears and steady myself, but the tears wouldn’t stop, the pain in my heart didn’t stop and the sobbing
CHARLOTTETaide cursed, immediately letting go of me.I stumbled back a little, a bit stunned by the force of my head slamming against his nose. Taide’s grip on me was gone, his hands now on his nose that was rapidly gushing out blood.I watched with intense satisfaction as crimson trailed from his nose, down past his lips and chin, onto his shirt. From the amount of it, I could tell that it was broken. And that was almost enough to bring a smile onto my face.Almost. Because rather than hunch over in pain, Taide grinned, his eyes glimmering with mirth. I watched his lips spread apart to show his bloodied teeth and excitement seemed to radiate off him, his hand remained clutching his nose, but only loosely, like he wasn’t at all concerned by the pain.Not at all the expression you’d expect from someone who just got headbutted.“Fuck,” he whispered in a laughing tone. “You really broke it.”The laugh in his voice set my teeth on edge. If I was angry before, I felt beyond irritated now.
CHARLOTTETaide rolled off his back, pushing up to his hands and knees as he stared at the ground.He shook his head back and forth in a repetitive motion before another bloodied grin took over his features. “I gotta say, I’ve missed you, man.”I was puzzled by what he meant, but Mads just scoffed at her brothers, clearly irritated by the show they were putting on.Taide jumped to his feet and moved so he and Caeson were toe to toe, staring each other down with inscrutable expressions on their faces. I held my breath, waiting for one of them to take a swing at the other, but before they could, they were shoved apart by the other person who shared their face.“What the hell is going on in this house?” Reigh asked.Taide smirked and tilted his head towards me. “Why don’t you ask her?”That would have been enough to set me off and attack him again, but Madeline was still holding me.“Enough!” Mads said. “We need to set some fucking rules in this house.”“And we need to have a meeting to